On the radio the other day I heard a deejay talk about signs that you are getting old. The indisputable evidence includes:-
- Saying ‘When I was a lad/lass’, ‘In my day’, ‘Youngsters today…’
- Groaning when sitting down
- No longer sitting cross-legged on the floor
I admit to number 3, but in fairness I avoided doing it (a) once I was old enough to afford chairs, and (b) when I wasn’t forced by my parents to sit on the floor when the old rellies came to visit for ‘tea’ and they took up all soft seating options.
The groaning – mmm not when sitting down, but with the running challenge I groan pretty much every day. An ‘oh’ when I realise it is yet another running day, and no it’s not a rest day. An ‘ah’ when the run is done. An ‘oh’ when I look at my tech and realise it hasn’t synched (actually the Oh is usually suffixed with an ‘eff’). An ‘ah’ when I realise I’ve passed another mini-milestone. An ‘oh’ when de-sausaging then an ‘ah’ when I hit my steaming hot shower.
In Italy ‘oh’ at the end of a word, generally denotes words of a masculine gender and an ‘ah’ feminine. There are exceptions, but it’s a good rule of thumb. The meaning of a noun can also be changed quite significantly by the use of an ‘oh’ or an ‘ah’. For example, there is a road on one of my running routes called Via Prugneta, which is more or less Plum Lane. If you change the ending to prugneto, as I did once in error, you elicit gasps of outrage or giggles from your Italian friends. It’s an impolite word for a certain part of the female anatomy.
This extends to other words – a similar ending occurs on a friend’s name – he is called Marco – one is a perfectly harmless nickname, the other less so.
And so to my run, it was 8 kilometres of ‘ohs’ as my poor bod wondered what on earth I was doing, both legs were aching everywhere, I’d been bitten by some kind of nadger, so that was itching, but the flowers on the lanes were out, so that was an ‘ah’ moment. I stumbled in the road ‘oh’ and when you look at the pic above you can see why ‘ah’ that will be a rubbish road surface then…
I finished up near the now infamous ‘Via Prugneta’ she is a cow, she is steep and hard and so I didn’t run up her – I stopped the clock and walked instead. ‘Ah’ JCR you are a coward.
Playlist
Snail – the Smashing Pumpkins
Happy – Pharrell Williams
Smile – Lily Allen
Tigerfeet – Mud
Smile – Gregory Porter
Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice (twice)
Under Pressure – Queen and David Bowie
Easy – Commodores
Nowhere Fast – Eminem and Kehlani
Love In An Elevator – Aerosmith
Compression – Digilio and Accorsi
One Step Beyond – Buster
Rest – Charlotte Gainsbourg
To Jan – Leonard Anderson (this is not aimed at me this is in recognition of a C25K Forum mentor)
Miami Vice Theme – Jan Hammer
Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley
Runnin’ Down A Dream – Tom Petty
Ju Ju Man – Dave Edmunds
Marathon – Rush
The Streak – Ray Stevens
Help – The Beatles
There Are More Questions Than Answers – Johnny Nash
The Winner – Status Quo
Stats
Distance 8.45kms
Time 1:01:51
Average Pace 7:19 (mins/km)
Alzheimers Challenge
Kms Run 672.85
Kms To run 1345.15
Oh yes and I have now run 1/3 of my challenge target which is 672.66 kms and we are not yet 1/3rd of the way through the year. that’s a very satisfying ‘ah’
